Paul & Sue Hazelden- Snowball -

There are many training courses for Christians - everything
from degree courses to Bible Colleges, church and organisational
Year Teams, and evening classes. Why introduce another?

Open Air Campaigners have been training people in evangelism
for many years. We specialise in the field of 'Proclamation
Evangelism'. We have been doing it and training people
to do it for many years, and believe the time is right to offer
these skills to more people.

Proclamation evangelism can be seen as the 'other side of the
coin' of friendship evangelism. In friendship evangelism,
you aim to reach the people you know for Christ; in proclamation
evangelism, you aim to reach the people you don't know.
These two are not alternative which we have to choose between, but
complementary strategies for reaching everyone for Christ.

In proclamation evangelism, we take the gospel message to the
people who need to hear it. It is sometimes called
'Out-reach' because the Church is reaching out to people where
they are, as opposed to 'In-drag', which is the usual technique
employed by Christians: invite people to a special meeting or
'guest service' in the church.

Proclamation evangelism does not aim to see people converted
solely on the basis of the message being preached - although we
rejoice when this happens! Rather, it is used to make
contact with people, who then have the opportunity to respond to
the message and find out more about this God Who has revealed
Himself in the person of Jesus. People usually come to
Christ through the personal evangelism and prayer after the public
message.

To clear up one common mis-conception... Proclamation
evangelism does not mean standing up in a shopping street
with a big black Bible in your hand, shouting scripture verses at
the people who pass by, or threatening them with eternal
damnation!